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Sober in the Animal House

By Owen B. Jennings May 15, 2009 11:14 amMay 15, 2009 11:14 am

My liver failed two springs ago, when I was a senior in high school. I don’t know the cause of my liver disease — a genetic mutation, an environmental trigger or just plain bad luck. But one of the many rules of my long recovery has been no alcohol. Not one drink. Not even a sip.

Owen Jennings

It was with this compulsory sobriety that I entered Dartmouth College two years ago. During my sophomore year, I pledged Alpha Delta, the fraternity that served as the model for the movie “Animal House.” (The film’s chief writer was an alumnus.) It was the same fraternity my brother pledged, and the same fraternity all of my friends would join. I was known as a “dry” pledge — everybody from the president to all the brothers made it clear to me that the fact that I didn’t drink wasn’t an issue at all.

Even though no one cares that I don’t drink, they still see it as bizarre. But being alcohol-free has given me a unique vantage point from which to observe college life and culture. It seems to me that alcohol might be the only drug that everyone is expected to use.

If I refuse a drag of a cigarette or marijuana, there are never any follow-up questions. The same is true for other drugs common on college campuses, whether it’s Adderall, cocaine or Ecstasy. But alcohol is different. Turning down a drink, for some reason, requires justification. When I decline alcohol, the response is almost always, “Why not?”

That’s because in college, drinking is the default. It is assumed that I drink, for no other reason than that I am an average 19-year-old American male. Not drinking is seen as weird.

At Dartmouth, and at every other college campus I have been to, the consumption of alcoholic beverages is common. But the word “consumption” is an understatement. I’m not talking about the casual sipping of a few beers. Here, alcohol consumption means the rapid and repeated gulping and guzzling of beer after beer after beer. Often, students will drink upwards of 15 or 20 beers. On any given night, a frat brother or a sorority sister will spend hours vomiting. Sometimes a classmate will wind up in the hospital with alcohol poisoning. And often, these people wake up unable to remember anything that happened the night before.

This way of living — of partying — is a culture of excess from which I will always be excluded. There are obvious benefits for me — no hangovers, for instance. But the fact that I am surrounded by alcohol is also a constant reminder of my illness and the underlying restraint I must maintain. Because I am not a part of the drinking culture, I don’t forget that alcohol is a drug, and that in large enough doses it’s a poison that causes brain damage and liver disease.

I am always tempted to have a drink. But it’s just not worth the risk. When you have doctors telling you that you almost died and that your liver function is directly affected by your alcohol consumption, it just doesn’t make sense. I am sure there are people with liver disease who do drink, but I am doing everything possible to stay out of the hospital right now.

I have trouble explaining the mindset of my schoolmates to my parents and my grandparents, who don’t understand why a girl would swill half a dozen shots in her dorm room before going out. My generation has adopted drinking as a social cure-all. It’s a way to celebrate winning that big game, and a way to sorrow over a lost girlfriend or a bad grade. It’s a way to fit in, and — if you can drink enough — it’s a way to stand out.

The fraternity is so much more than just a place to drink. I go to the house and we hang out, get dinner, listen to music and go to concerts. We have sports teams, literary contests and community service projects. We send school supplies to Kenya, we work on the Special Olympics, and A.D. recently helped fund gay pride week. So there is a lot more going on than just crazy drinking. It’s just that the drinking overshadows everything.

My sobriety has shown me how mindless my friends’ drinking has become. The question shouldn’t be, “Why aren’t you drunk?” Rather, we need to start asking, “Why are you drunk?”

If I hadn’t been diagnosed with liver disease, I would probably be a part of this insane and inane drinking lifestyle. But I’ve come to realize that while I might feel left out at a party or a bar today, maybe I’m lucky. I will graduate from college without ever having woken up on a bathroom floor, wondering how I got there; without ever having to play hide-and-go-seek with the police. Though I regularly feel frustrated and excluded because I can’t drink, I think I’ll feel differently in a few years, when extravagant keg parties are a distant memory.

I realize that drinking is a way to rebel and revel in the newfound freedom that college brings. But it’s also a veil, a way to manipulate, distort and enhance who we really are.

If anything, being sober at the Animal House has taught me just to be myself.

Owen Jennings is a sophomore studying philosophy and English at Dartmouth College.

If I’m not mistaken, doesn’t your university have an organization called Asgard, which is for students who pursue fun activities without alcohol? One of my friends used to belong to that group. But that was a dozen years ago. Things may have changed at Dartmouth.

There are plenty of good times to be had without alcohol. I didn’t have a liver problem – just abstained from excess drinking because I didn’t see the point. There are plenty of people like us out there. Don’t feel that you’re alone.

I didn’t drink in college by choice and married a military aviator (a culture also bound up in heavy partying). Consequently, I’ve been sober around drunks a lot. It gives a totally different perspective, which you have described well. You are, indeed, the lucky one.

Unlike Winston Churchill, alcohol has gotten more from me, than I from alcohol. I suspect this is true with most people, especially those who abuse it at a young age. This is the best thing you ever did for yourself Owen.

Just do what you want and what you have to. You don’t owe anyone an explanation even. Just say, “No, thanks.” People are so nosy it’s ridiculous. Say and do what you want and people can sit on a tack if they don’t like it.

It seems like this kind of drinking is almost of rite-of-passage for American college kids. I can’t really haul off against it because just a year ago I was a part of it, but I think you will find that things change.

College is a unique 4 year experience for most that cannot be duplicated (even though some adults try). For the unfortunate few, collegiate drinking turns into a life long battle with alcohol addiction, but for others, interests get turned elsewhere. Maybe its going out 1 or 2 nights a week as opposed to three or 4 nights a week, and maybe its a few really good micro-brews instead of 10 Keystones (alcoholic water) straight to the dome.

For recent college grads, money is tight, and working 12 hour days with a hangover is brutal. We still drink to excess when we are out of college, I just think it happens less frequently.

Thank you, Owen for so frankly describing the American college experience.

On entering college, I quickly learned that I was a “fun drunk” — at least in the opinion of others who were ten drinks deep. The appeal of being accepted was almost as intoxicating as the Natty light, and I quickly became one of those girls with a regular habit of six-drink pre-gaming, and post-party vomiting. Worse yet, I was the one asking “why not?” when others refused to join the drunken fray.

I had all kinds of excuses for this level of drinking, but the only one that seemed to matter was “everyone else is doing it”. Not entirely true, but it sounds better than “80% of everyone else is doing it”.

For those of you think that college alcoholism is a problem only for C-students and Greeks, I’m hear to tell you that in my experience, it cuts across all levels of academic success. Only one of my regular drinking buddies was in a fraternity and none of us had a GPA below 3.5. We’re now pursuing careers in law, medicine, business, chemistry, physics, social work, government and international aid.

So “no harm, no foul” right? Just kids being kids? Looking back on those wasted nights and their unfortunate consequences, not the least of which is forgetting how to socialize without drinking, I think it’s time for a change.

Stay sober, Owen. The risks of college alcoholism aren’t worth it for the average 19 year old, let alone one with a history of liver disease.

I’ve never had a drink of alcohol in my life, purely by choice. I simply never wanted to have a chemical so profoundly affecting my brain and judgment and I never liked the taste of any alcoholic beverage I’ve tried. I, like Owen, had the startlingly unique opportunity to watch all my college friends routinely drink themselves senseless. I’d go to parties with them and manage to enjoy myself early in the evening when most were still somewhat coherent, but what I learned quickly was that after about 1-2 hours of wacthing them drink, I became pretty bored. There were always strange looks and reactions to my not drinking. I’d always answer, “It’s just not for me.” The peer pressure to drink that Owen so well describes here didn’t bother me mostly, but occasionally I’d hear that I was viewed as “too uptight” and that people wished I’d relax and “have a beer once in a while.” It made me angry that my not drinking caused those kinds of judgments. Of course, like Owen, I had my share of friends who developed serious health problems from drinking in college including alcoholism. Now, decades later, I can verify Owen’s suspicion that he will feel differently about the pressure to drink in a few years.

To Owen I’d say, even though your illness has forced this choice on you, revel in your individuality and be proud of your ability to make a choice you believe is right for you despite what anyone else thinks. The character you’re building in learning to resist peer pressure will serve you the rest of your life.

I’m 24 and graduated college 2 years ago. I drank a lot during college, as did most of my friends. It was, as Mr. Jennings, states, assumed that one would get drunk on the weekends (and maybe on Wednesday and Thursday as well). My drinking slowed down a lot when I started a demanding job after college and it came to a screeching halt when I had a medical crisis (unrelated to drinking) last year and started taking prescription medication twice a day. I admit, I’ve had about 1/2 a serving of wine a few times since then, but that’s it. Some of my coworkers, who know quite well what my health situation is, are still confused about why I won’t drink during happy hour on Fridays. I’ve explained that drinking around a time when I take my medication could result in seizures or other nasty interactions, but they say “Oh, but that’s probably really unlikely.”

Well, the congenital defect that landed me in the hospital last year was also “probably really unlikely”. So, now I’m kind of lame. I even went on two dates earlier this year with a guy who was freaked out that I didn’t want to have a drink with dinner even though I told him many times that I didn’t care if he drank and explained my circumstances. I guess one of the only good things about going through a life-threatening medical event at a young age is that now I know that my social life does not revolve have to revolve around drinking. In fact, I think my social skills have gotten remarkably better without having to rely on booze to relax me!

“Animal House” was really funny, and a lot of the fraternity shenanigans in that movie were not far from the truth, especially the excessive drinking.

Drinking in college was fun, and loosened up people at a party.

What I never understood is why supposedly intelligent people, who were clearly not physically alcohol dependent (yet) would REPEATEDLY take their drinking to the level of passing out or sickness. That’s not fun for anyone.

Thanks for an inspiring column. It’s tough not to be a part of the drinking culture in many ways, but in the end, you’re really not missing out on much – if anything. Being present is a great gift.
I just started going to college; I am also an alcoholic who is just getting sober. And if you can make it through college without drinking, so can I!

I wish someone would do a side-by-side analysis of the long-term damage to our nation’s economy and health of marijuana vs. alcohol. It seems that alcohol is much, much worse. Perhaps both should be legal, but regulated? I.e. taxed, access for minors controlled, and most importantly, not advertised?

(Owen, your suspicions that this handicap will turn out to be an advantage are right. Great article!)

Owen, you wrote a great article. I too have been concerned about the drinking culture in US universities.
I wanted you to know that you are not alone. I had two drinks in college, found out I didn’t like it and left the stuff alone for the next 4 years. I had a few more drinks after I that, each time reinforcing my belief that I didn’t like the stuff. So I was really happy when my husband HAD to quit drinking, because that meant that there was one less person telling me I ought to have a drink when I didn’t want one.
The response to my not drinking that infuriated me the most was “YOU DESERVE A DRINK” . More than one person has said this to me; which causes me to see red. I deserve to imbibe a bad tasting poison ? why?
There are not that many teetotalers out there, but I wanted you to know that you are not the only one.

I never drank to excess, but I used to have a few glasses of wine now and then when having dinner out or for a special occasion. Then I was diagnosed at age 47 with a very rare liver disease that *might* have been caused by a drug I was given for an unrelated serious illness five years prior. I eventually received a liver transplant and with it an admonition to curtail all alcohol consumption.

That, more than my illness or transplant, re-categorized me from “normal” to “abstinent” in a society where abstinence is abnormal. I fully understand what you are saying when you talk of the need constantly provide justifications as to why you have just refused a drink. It was perhaps the one part of post-transplant life that I hadn’t anticipated: not the no drinking part, but the constantly having to explain it part.

I strongly suspect that the feeling of “odd man out” you describe as being part of the college experience will continue to haunt you to an extent for the rest of your life. That you’ve managed to turn it into a plus says much about how you will be able to continue manage your necessary abstinence. Even after graduation, peers will continue to question you. Having several different quips at the ready to the ever-present “just one can’t hurt you” will serve you well at all the future weddings, birthday parties and holiday cook-outs you will face in the years ahead. Best of luck to you and your liver.

Good for you, kid. It’s why I’ve always been wary of groups, cliques, or clubs of any kind. Always the enormous pressure to do what they do no matter how idiotic it is. Thinking for yourself is almost unheard of in a college fraternity. Keep at it and take care of that liver now. C.

Probably half the fraternity members I’ve ever met claim that their fraternity was the model for Animal House. I first heard that claim from my oldest brother, who was in a frat at University of Oregon in the late 1970s when “Animal House” came out.

This pervasive, competitive desire to claim “ownership” of the Animal House model underscores our culture’s bizarre esteem for drunken college excess.

FROM TPP — Well, for better or worse, Dartmouth is the real deal. According to Inside Higher Ed (and many other sources), “the college’s Alpha Delta Phi fraternity, to which the movie’s chief writer, Chris Miller, belonged in the early 1960s, did serve as a model for the small-budget film that became the biggest-grossing college movie of all time. Washington University in St. Louis can also stake partial claim to inspiring the movie’s hijinks, as one of Miller’s co-writers, Harold Ramis, contributed his experiences from the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity there.”

I also had a completely drug and alcohol-free college experience due to health issues. I used to take a big bottle of grapefruit juice along to parties to sip all night. It was obvious to me from my sober vantage point that the drunker people got, the more boring and pathetic they became. To this day, 30 years later (and yes, the drinking and drug culture was just as rampant in 1979, sorry to say) I find bars sad, pointless, empty places. I’m happy that I didn’t belong in that world. I like being conscious and engaged. Stick with sobriety – you’ll be a better person for it in the long run!

My daughter-in-law graduated from Dartmouth in 2006 with honors and a raging addiction to alcohol and prescription drugs.

In June of ’07 she took her life by inhaling from a tank of helium. Mango was bright, beautiful and came from a family of functioning addicts that valued success at any price. Who knows how much the culture at Dartmouth described by the author contributed to her demise. I only know her two children will be forever changed because of this tragedy.

While alcohol does affect many lives both in and after college it important to note two things this article does not touch upon. Statistically, at Dartmouth College members of greek houses have a higher GPA than non greek members and secondly, Alpha Delta has the second highest GPA of any fraternity on campus.

Owen, your article is extremely inspiring for both people that cannot drink and people who want to stay away from drinking at college. Your story proves that one doesn’t have to drink excessively when being involved in a greek system. Good for you.

I was also a non-drinker in college and it made me one of the most popular people on campus – the 100% reliably sober desginated driver. I knew where every party in town was. Still a tee-totaler 20+ years later, and still a highly requested party guest because of it.